strumstrum™

An easy way to get better at playing guitar, or even just to warm up before playing, is with scales. A scale is just a series of notes differing in pitch. The blues scale is one of my favorite scales to warm up with. The Blues scale involves the following notes: C Eb F Gb G and Bb. If you don’t understand music notes yet, don’t worry. That’s a different article altogether.

Play the scale below starting with the first note (C), first finger, on the low E string, at the 8th fret on your guitar. Then play the fourth finger position on the low E string. Next, play the first finger position on the next string down (A). Then play the second finger position on the A string and so on.
Numbers indicate fingers: 1 = index, 2 = middle, 3 = ring, 4 = little
8th fret
|--1--|-----|-----|--4--| - high E
|--1--|-----|-----|--4--| - B
|--1--|-----|--3--|--4--| - G
|--1--|-----|--3--|-----| - D
|--1--|--2--|--3--|-----| - A
|--1--|-----|-----|--4--| - low E
Play the scale from low to high until you are comfortable with it. Then try playing backwards, from the fourth finger on the high E down. Combine the two and see how fast you can “surf” the scale. Good luck and practice hard!